Are employee surveys evil?

Employee researcher Theresa Welbourne has concluded that those annual employee surveys you conduct are unpleasant, harmful and morally wrong

The word evil is not one that I chose to use lightly, particularly given our current political environment where the word seems to be tossed around more than I personally appreciate. However, after many attempts and an exhaustive word search, I frankly could not find a term that carried quite the same meaning. In case you are wondering what exactly the true definition of evil may be, below is what I used in a leadership study that I am conducting.

Definition for “something evil”: a situation that is very unpleasant, harmful or morally wrong.

Now you are wondering, why I would even suggest that something as innocent as a survey could be unpleasant, harmful or morally wrong. Let me tell you a story about an experience that led me down the path of this thinking.